Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

oh ish I meant vol 6

yeah there's good stuff on there, i just think bob and his audience are a little too in-sync at that point, which is not always a recipe for his best work. still, it's amazing to imagine hearing something like "it's alright ma" for the first time there.

yeah that's another one of the great ones there

This weekend read a Dylan bio by a guy named Dennis McDougal. It leans towards the dishy, pathography end of the spectrum and has some annoying if minor mistakes, at least the ones I noticed—misspelling of Lownds as *Lowndes* , wrong reason given for Bruce Langhorne's losing fingers, James Dean's red jacket being described as made of leather—but it does have some kind of narrative drive that propels it forward and keeps one turning pages.

vol 6 is my idea of a perfect pre-electric best of, and yeah the debuts are incredible. "this is called 'it's alright, ma, it's life and life only'." [hipster audience laughter] "haha, yes. it's a very funny song."

fun: compare the chilly, reverent silence after "even the president of the united states sometimes must have to stand naked" in 1964 with what happens after the same line in before the flood

"this is called 'it's alright, ma, it's life and life only'." [hipster audience laughter] "haha, yes. it's a very funny song."

haha great stuff, I'll have to revisit

tell tale signs is my fave but i think that's just my favorite dylan period in general.

When he says "Do it again, one time for Bozo"in "Dress It Up, Better Have It All" is it supposed to be reminiscent of The Beatles' cover of "Honey Don't" and "Ah, rock on George for Ringo one time."?

there's something almost... disappointing about the apparent new strategy for these bootleg series volumes. after years of saying, "i wish they would just release everything from *insert era here*"... well, that's exactly what they're doing. only you are going to pay an incredible premium for it. and the whole things smells of exploitation of a rabid fanbase. which is how it was always going to be, i guess. but it's one of those "i got what i wanted, now what..." sorts of things.

also, diminishing returns are presumably going to set in when we get bootleg series vol. 46: complete 'under the red sky' sessions

a whole disc of 'wiggle wiggle'

"i wish they would just release everything from *insert era here*"... well, that's exactly what they're doing.

That's why I wonder if one reason for the $600 outtake dump is European copyright extension -- iirc, after 50 years, anything unreleased essentially reverts to public domain in Europe.

that's a very good point

I am listening to various things through streaming, a variant of the "ambient" strategy mentioned above, but yeah see your point(s). I mean actually buying the big boxes might be depressing/oppressive.

That's why I wonder if one reason for the $600 outtake dump is European copyright extension -- iirc, after 50 years, anything unreleased essentially reverts to public domain in Europe.

oh, absolutely! they've actually been releasing the earlier stuff in big box sets in extremely limited editions for the explicit purpose of copyright extension. with this one, they just figure they can make bank off of it at the same time.

there's something almost... disappointing about the apparent new strategy for these bootleg series volumes. after years of saying, "i wish they would just release everything from *insert era here*"... well, that's exactly what they're doing.
well, yeah, but at least there are various options. if the 18-disc thing was all they were doing, it'd be kind of crazy, but there are still the 6 and 2 disc versions...

Yeah, I don't really get why they went the super-limited route with those earlier copyright extension releases.

But in all honesty, while I know it's aesthetically the least-appealing option, if the 18-disc set's contents were available as a download-only, I could see myself ponying up $100 for it (like what the Beatles did with their 1963 Bootleg set) (except that was way cheaper than $100) (and hey, why wasn't there a 1964 set?)

xp

xpost

but how can those ever feel like anything but a horrible compromise? :)

don't you at least want to know if they really cherry-picked the best stuff?

i guess i could put it more prosaically: i really want all this music, but cheaper, and above all i can't stand these super-deluxe box sets with the pointless coffee-table books, the vial of dylan's dead skin cells, the bottle of Absolutely Sweet Marie energy juice so you can stay up through all 18 discs....

yeah, i see what you're saying. with something like this, it almost seems like they should roll out a whole other means of presenting it ... like a subscription service or something? i don't know. i mean, i want to hear it all, but yeah, i couldn't care less about 7-inch repros etc.

Guess that means that you are not a real Dylanologist then, right, amateurist?

i guess not!

man i didn't even realise there was an official basement tapes

7 inch repros are plain silly, but I like the booklets

Booklets are only of relevance to the music as presented here are they? I mean there would be no point wnhatsoever to release what's in them outside of the box? Basically I wouldn't mind a proper peruse and might buy something like that if amended for standalone purpose though maybe that greil Marcus book of a few years ago covers the same ground? Or was that just focused on Like A Rolling Stone?

Is there anything out bookwise specifically on this high mercury sound era?

Are these mega-boxes priced at this level to effectively pay for all those that will be sharing the d/l versions with their pals?

Booklets are cool! They have great photos, essays on the period, proper song credits etc. Wouldn't buy the as books, but they're good w/ cd/lp boxes.

Except for the "Bob Dylan e.p.'s" one that came with "Tell Tale Signs", pointless and price-enhancing.

Please someone stop me from getting the 18 disc one...I'm helpless to resist

Don't do it!

Or rather, do it and live blog for the rest of us.

Dont Do It!

LOL, live blogging this -- "That was another false start of 'Like A Rolling Stone'..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0azcWTluaQ&feature=youtu.be

Oh great...I narrowly avoided buying the 18 disc one because I entered something wrong and it didn't go through. Now with this clip thing, I know I'll be back--helpless addict that I am

Is that Penn Jillette doing the voiceover?

Yeah, I can't seem to figure out if I like him or not. I heard he has helped bands like Half Japanese out, but then there's also not good stuff about him?

He's a huge fan of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. In fact I once saw him standing with Lou outside a yogurt shop on Montague Street. I walked halfway down the block past a bunch of stock still backwards looking people before I learned what the commotion was about.

Penn Jillette is an asshole, c;mon now

he never lets the other dude talk!
anyway, some cool stuff in that vid... funny that "she belongs to me" was initially called "my girl".

Yes. Only other original working titles I know are "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" was "Phantom Engineer(s)" and "Visions of Johanna" was "Freeze Out."

Amazon's preselling 6-discs-worth of mp3s for $59 (vinyl's only $69) A couple of downloads are already available.
here tis:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015LDCYDG?keywords=bob%20dylan&qid=1444070669&ref_=sr_1_3_twi_mus_2&sr=8-3

think the vinyl is just the two-disc version... the one for losers, man!

sometimes i like to imagine that teller is a thoughtful, committed democratic socialist

such a shame that dylan never recorded this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1fpDWXwfso

Thanks---oh btw, Penn did have an indie label, 50 Skadillion Watts, with 1/2 Japanese, Moe Tucker, some kind of connection with VU fan clubs etc. hnady back in the pre-Web, mail order daze. Annoyance factor for me is his "skepticism"/trolling re climate change, govt. aid, private charity etc (this last from possibly bogus but plausibly Penn-style Fecebook quotes) cos cool guys like us know the score nyuk nyuk.

Very enjoyable magic though---yet another example of talent/skills vs. personality/opinions, as with Dylan sometimes.

Penn also toured with the Residents early on (he was the announcer/narrator on the Mole Show tour).

I have this record, it's pretty entertaining:
http://cdn.discogs.com/NaRhoUhNtXjWz6_6zD5t3Bq-3yk=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(96)/discogs-images/R-622877-1223411710.jpeg.jpg

wow that is a pretty rare record! I had never heard of it, cool idea for a label overview:

The premise of this record is that Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) is locked in a hotel room for a week and given the entire Ralph Records discography to listen to and comment on. There is a short excerpt of a Ralph tune, and then Penn comments on it, and so on. Jillette dislikes the records, and by side 2 he has a nervous breakdown.